SAP S/4HANA 2022 is the last on-premise release under SAP's annual cadence before the switch to a biennial model. It is a mature annual release and, for many customers, the immediate predecessor to their planned biennial landing release — a comfortable but transitional place to be.
It became generally available on 12 October 2022. SAP mainstream maintenance runs until 31 December 2027 — the point after which SAP stops delivering new patches, legal and regulatory updates, and support packages for the release. Crucially, SAP offers no extended-maintenance phase for this release, so the mainstream date is a hard cut-off rather than the start of a paid extension — there is no buying of extra time at the version level. That leaves a workable but finite window; given that SAP transformations routinely run multi-year, scoping and budgeting should be underway rather than deferred.
The successor is SAP S/4HANA 2023 or 2025, reached by in-place upgrade. Moving onto the biennial line is the meaningful step here, since those releases are designed for longer, more predictable maintenance and break the cycle of frequent annual upgrades.
Customers on 2022 have a little more runway than those on earlier annual releases, but they face the same no-extension rule: when mainstream maintenance ends there is no paid phase to fall back on. Planning the biennial upgrade now, rather than at the deadline, keeps the project unhurried and low-risk.
Independent reference tool. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by SAP SE. Product names are referenced as plain text for identification only. Always confirm dates against SAP's official Product Availability Matrix and your support contract.